Lunar eclipse Wednesday night

About 24 hours from now, we should be treated to a glorious lunar eclipse, provided the weather behaves. As of now clouds are expected tomorrow night, so it might not be ideal viewing weather. Either way it promises to be very windy, so if you do brave the night be sure to bundle up.

I remember taking Hallie to watch a lunar eclipse at Jordan Lake when she was little. I don’t remember if Travis was with us then or not. With a little luck, we’ll all get a view of a wonderous celestial event.

Diver Down

Its a Diver Down night, that classic Van Halen album from 1982.

I distinctly remember being a middle-schooler out past my bedtime, returning from a school-related dinner at Applegate’s Landing, which is what passed for a fancy restaurant in Columbia, SC. Probably a chorus-related thing, now that I think about it. A few students and I were being driven by my friend’s mother in her BMW 320i. The muggy night air was blowing through the sunroof and this album was playing on the stereo.
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Good handymen are hard to find

I had a card for a commercial electrician in my collection – a guy who did excellent work for my company a few years back. I could tell he was one of those guys who loved what he did, so when we needed some work done here I thought I’d call him up.

His boss answered instead and so I put the question to him. “I know you do commercial work,” I said, “but is there anyone you could recommend who does good residential work?”
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US to shoot down errant spy satellite

A sophisticated U.S. spy satellite is deorbiting out of control. The Bush administration announced its plans to shoot down the satellite with a ship-fired missile, ostensibly because of fears its rocket fuel would poison anyone coming in contact with it.

Riiiiiight. It would be the first time ever the Bush administration paid a whit to the environment. The satellite is likely to have a fiery reentry, so it would follow that any remaining rocket fuel would burn with it. The real reason for the shootdown is to keep the terrists from discovering the bird’s secret capabilities.

Plus, it will make a really cool bang.

Did I say popular?

Remember when I said our Craigslist ad was popular? Well, was I wrong … its really popular! Its not yet 6PM and already we’ve racked up an astounding 309 views of the ad! Of that, a huge audience of 41 visitors went to our Great Raleigh Home website wanting to find out more.

Today, we showed the house to three different groups. We’ll probably have at least two showings tomorrow. Maybe even an offer!

Craigslist ad proves very popular!

Wow, am I ever glad I decided to track the Craigslist ad for our house! In 12 hours of tracking, Craigslist viewers have clicked the ad 101 times!

On a related note, the clickthrough percentage to GreatRaleighHome.Com has fallen considerably from the 40% I reported earlier but that doesn’t worry me. When I reported the 40% rate, the ad had rolled off the front page and thus was typically found only through a specific search. Being on the front page attracts more viewers who are just window shopping. Or, they’re just lazy and clicked it mindlessly, there is that.
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Sleep report

I am fascinated with the details on how I sleep. I can directly observe almost all other aspects of my health but sleep is one thing I must rely on others to understand. After waking myself with grinding jaws, I gave a call to Dr. Garside Friday to get some sort of treatment going for my poor sleeping. I spoke with his nurse and asked to see the sleep report myself. After all, I paid handsomely to have it produced, right?
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Secrets of selling, lesson 1: tracking your ad

Last night I got smart and put an html IMG tag in my Craigslist ad for the house. Now anytime anyone views the ad, they pull a 35-byte GIF image from my webserver. I can then track how effective the ad is.

After setting up my tracking at 9:30 last night, five people clicked on the Craigslist ad. Out of those, two of them went on to view the home at the GreatRaleighHome.Com website. A forty-percent clickthrough rate is awesome!

About the Sargasso Sea

When I posted the Cracker song Be My Love yesterday, I became curious about the Sargasso Sea. Being a sailor, I pride myself on knowing where various seas are but I’d never heard of this one. No wonder: the Sargasso Sea is the only sea without shores.
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